This invention relates to apparatus and methods for air handling systems for buildings and clean rooms and may include devices. Specifically, it relates to the use of fans in coaxial arrangements and includes associated equipment.
It is well known to distribute air from an air handling system to a main air supply duct to various branch ducts throughout a building. Such buildings may include what is commonly termed xe2x80x9cclean rooms,xe2x80x9d of controlled purity environments. The air flows into the ventilated area and is generally returned via a central return duct back to the air handling system. Naturally, such system could include several systems running in like fashion.
The standard installation of an air handling system, for instance, to a building includes a return air chase or conduit located within the walls or even the floor of the building that extends up above the roof into a generally square or rectangular enclosure. Until the present invention, the square or rectangular enclosure was generally the preferred shape because of the ease of construction and design. Inside the square or rectangular enclosure generally are filter elements, cooling or heating coils, air baffles, noise reduction units, and so forth. Noteworthy, the vast majority of enclosed air handling systems use a centrifugal fan. The centrifugal fans generally have an efficiency of 50-60% and offer an advantage in making a 90 degree turn without the use of vanes and other devices. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,997 to Dean, shows the typical installation of a centrifugal fan within a rectangular box. The return air from a central ducting system flows upward into a plenum, turns and then across coils, filters, and so forth, and into the inlet of the centrifugal fan. Outside air may be mixed with the return air (called xe2x80x9cmakeup airxe2x80x9d) as the needs of particular installation occur. The blades of the centrifugal fan force the air from the inlet out at a generally 90 degree angle into the supply air duct. Typically, ducting is used to distribute the air from the main supply flow path. Naturally, other combinations can occur. Furthermore, the air ventilation can be used in other aspects as well such as in ducted systems for refrigerated devices, appliances, and electrical instruments. The considerations in designing such a system include noise reduction, volumetric flow (dependent upon static pressure), air efficiency losses, pressure drops, and many other factors. As technology has improved and requirements of filtration heightened (especially in a clean room environment), new ways of performing the old tasks have been sought.
One of the ways in which new ways have been sought is the use of axial flow devices such as axial fans perhaps due to a smaller size, ease of flow control, and higher efficiency. However, while axial fans have been known for many years and find their application in various fields, the designers of central air handling systems have not sought the use of axial fans due to various complications. For instance, with the turns and angular orientations of a typical system, the rotating blades of an axial fan may encounter varying pressure differentials across the flow path. The axial flow fan design is relatively intolerant of unsymmetrical flows across the flow path. While a centrifugal fan, because of its design, generally would not be affected with such pressure differentials, the axial fan could be destroyed by, for instance, breaking a blade with various hazardous effects. Thus, prior to the invention, extensive damage can be done to even large and expensive systems by unsymmetrical flow paths such as a partially blocked filter, large struts, varying flows, and so forth.
Furthermore, a typical axial system, until the present invention, generally requires an extended length of the flow path entering the fan and even to some extent exiting the fan to assist in balancing the flows across the blades of an axial fan. Furthermore, the higher rotational speeds of axial fans may produce high frequency tones that may require careful acoustic design. On the other hand, centrifugal systems generally generate lower frequency noise. Historically, until the present invention, centrifugal fans and its known systems described above such as a square/rectangular enclosure with noise reduction equipment, tend to be more tolerant of non-uniform inlet flows than axial fans and may not require as careful of an acoustic design. For instance, the typical filtering system requires 500 feet per minute (FPM), yet a typical axial flow fan may operate around 3,000 FPM. Thus, the velocity at the filter must be decreased without significant distortion. For axial fans, this typically required lengthy straight duct sections in front of the fan to smooth out the distortion and nonuniformity. Again, this is not as important an issue with the centrifugal fan due to the inherent flow path in and through the centrifugal fan.
A hybrid of these airflow systems for buildings involves a xe2x80x9cclean room.xe2x80x9d In clean rooms, high rates of flow are used to essentially purge the air throughout the room. Typically, the air enters a ceiling with a multitude of high efficiency filters, flows vertically at a relatively high flow rate into a floor grill and then is returned to the fan and related duct work. Interestingly, in clean room environments, because of the high flow rates required, multiple units are typically placed over a limited area. However, because of the typical size of air handling systems, this may have resulted in additional support structures and costs to support the extra weight that the present invention may not require. Also, the general state of the art appears to be that the multiple units"" return flows are combined in the clean room as the flows enter through the floor grill and are returned to the units via a central collection system. For the clean room environment, multiple filters are used. Some filters are particulate filters. Other filters are chemical absorption filters because, in a given clean room, multiple contaminates may occur. Thus, a typical filter battery of a clean room environment may include a particulate filter and multiple chemical filters to filter the assorted chemicals. This obviously increases the expense with multiple chemicals. Furthermore, some chemical filters may become saturated earlier than other chemical filter elements. Thus, in some cases, the life of the filter element is shortened prematurely as the entire filter bank may be replaced.
In the clean room environment, if different zones are needed in a given clean room, the general state of the art is to divide by walls, partitions, shutters, and so forth, so that different classes of filtration can occur. An example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,640 to Suzuki. In the Suzuki reference, the generally accepted philosophy is shown, that is, to divide and physically segregate certain clean air zones and filter the air through high efficiency particulate air filters. It would be convenient and less cumbersome to filter each zone, whether divided or undivided, for that zones"" particular contaminant and in particular chemical contaminants.
Thus, while the higher efficiency of an axial fan has been long recognized, the practical ability of those skilled in the art to implement such a system has essentially not occurred until the present invention. Nonuniform flow, noise, high anal velocity, and extended entrance and exit configurations, and other complexities directed the typical air handling system designer and user to specify systems such as might be used on rooftops with centrifugal fans.
Prior to the present invention, no solution offered a combination of features that allowed the efficient and practical use of axial fans in resolving the above difficulties, especially in systems with close turns and without the ability to have lengthy straight duct sections in front of the fan. Actually, the development appeared to be away from the present invention because of the practical difficulties of using axial fans for such air ventilation systems.
Thus, there has been a long-felt unsatisfied need for the invention in allowing for the use of the higher efficiency of axial type flow devices, such as fans, and associated filtration equipment even though the needed implementing arts have long been available. Those skilled in the art appreciated that a problem existed and indeed were unable to arrive at a satisfactory solution. Substantial attempts were made by those skilled in the art, but such attempts failed to set aside the need because they failed to appreciate or understand the problem. Indeed, the prior efforts taught away from the technical direction of the present invention and the use of axial flow devices for air handling systems.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a unique system and method for an air handling system and associated equipment and in the preferred embodiment for using an axial flow device in typically a co-axial manner by reversing the flow through a reversing element. Additional aspects that appear to improve the performance relate to the use of filters and coils and an inclined manner of using the filters and coils to assist in turning of air flows, coils that surround an air intake to the fan and provide a pressure balancing effect and more uniform flow distribution, as well as a converging filter arrangement to assist in the filtration. The present invention also involves a localized filtration in a clean room of undivided zones with predetermined filtration characteristic needs. It may also involve localized chemical filtration of zones, whether divided or undivided.
More specifically, a goal of the present invention is to provide an air handling system including a return flow path for air to return to an air handling system through perhaps a return, a reversing element which is fluidicly connected to the return flow path, an axial flow device fluidicly connected to the reversing element and the return flow path, and a supply flow path where some portion of the supply flow path is at least partially surrounded by the return flow path and fluidicly connected to the flow device. Additionally, any of the following objects (and others) could be included. One object of this goal may be to provide a return flow path which substantially parallel to some portion of the supply flow path. Another goal may include providing at least a portion of a supply flow path located between symmetrical returns, which may include multiaxial returns. Another object of this goal may be to provide at least some portion of a supply flow path substantially enclosed by the return flow path. Another object of this goal is to provide substantially uniform flow of air in the proximity of an axial flow device and may include a uniform distribution of air across a fan blade. An object of this goal may be to provide a supply flow path substantially co-axial with the return flow path. An object of this goal may be to provide at least one filter fluidicly connected to the axial flow device to filter the air. Another object is to provide a filter inclined to a primary flow direction of at least one of the flow paths which may assist in changing flow direction of air from the primary flow direction to a turned flow direction. One object could include a converging filter which may be used as a separate object or in combination with inclining the filter to the primary flow direction. The converging filter may include a trapezoidal filter. Another object of this goal is to provide a filter which substantially fluidicly surrounds the axial flow device which may assist in establishing a substantially uniform air flow around the axial flow device. Likewise, an object is to provide a coil which also may substantially fluidicly surround the axial flow device. Another object is to provide a coil which may be oriented substantially perpendicular to the direction of a primary flow of both the return and supply flow path, if, for instance, the return and supply flow paths are parallel. Another object is to provide a coil which is frustoconical in that it has a smaller circumference at one end. Another object is to provide an axial flow device with adjustable pitch blades or variable rotational speed to alter flow efficiencies and flow rates. Another object is to provide a boundary layer affecting element fluidicly connected to at least one of the flow paths, which may include a flow splitter or a boundary layer opening or a combination thereof. Several boundary layer openings may be included and may be located or spaced about a perimeter of the supply flow path and could be located between the return flow path and the supply flow path, at, for instance, an interface between the flow paths. Such boundary layer opening could be adjustable and further might be adjustable automatically or remotely or both. Another object to this goal is to provide a remote access and replacement filter changing element which may include several subelements to change a plurality of filters from at least one centralized location. Such an arrangement could include locating filters in an annulus formed by the relative location of the return and supply flow paths. Such an arrangement could include what may be generally referred to as a lazy Susan arrangement. It could also include an arrangement where the filters are slidably moved around an annulus. The lazy Susan arrangement could include, for instance, a filter holder, a rolling element supporting the filter holder, a rolling element support, and a fastening element to fasten the rolling element support to the rest of the air handling system. Another object of this goal is to provide at least one conditioning element having at least a first and second flow surface where at least one of the flow surfaces is oriented at an angle to a direction of a primary flow of one of the flow paths, typically a return path, to aid in turning the flow where the conditioning element is selected from the group consisting essentially of conditioning elements affecting filtration purity and temperature, such as coils and filters. Such a conditioning element could include being placed in an annulus formed by the relative position of a return flow path and a supply flow path. Such use of a conditioning element could assist in establishing a more uniform flow of air. Naturally, the angle could be any angle such as acute, perpendicular, obtuse, or any other angle. Yet, another object of the present invention is to provide at least one skewed flow face filter in the system to assist in filtration and to assist in turning the flow at an intended turn in the flow. The skewed flow face filter may be a polysided, three dimensional configuration with a first and second flow face where the first flow face is skewed at an angle to the second flow face and may include a frame. Such a skewed flow face filter might be oriented substantially perpendicular in a primary direction of a return flow path and the second flow face might be oriented toward a turned direction of the return flow path. Another object might include varying the flow resistance across a cross sectional area of a varying flow resistance element selected from the group consisting essentially of flow resistance elements affecting filtration purity and temperature. The system might include a turning element which may act independently of the skewed flow face filter and may turn the air where the skewed flow face filter might assist in the turning. The second flow face might have substantially equal surface area from the first flow face. The air handling system could be used in conjunction with a clean room and could further include a clean room with undivided zones with a filtration system adapted to filter a predetermined first contaminant in the undivided zone where the first contaminant is different than a predetermined second contaminant in at least one other of the undivided zones of the clean room. Also, the air handling system could be used in conjunction with a clean room and could further include zones and a chemical filtration system adapted to filter a predetermined first chemical contaminant in the zone of the clean room wherein the first chemical contaminant is different than a predetermined second contaminant in at least one other of the zones. Another object of the present invention is to provide ease of maintenance using an axial fan. Another object is to provide a relatively lightweight and small footprint air ventilation system compared to the typically rectangular air ventilation systems using centrifugal fans. Other objects discussed in other goals apply to this goal as well.
Another goal of the present invention is to provide a method for handling air in an air handling system including the steps of returning air through a return flow path to an air handling system, reversing flow of the air into the supply flow path, flowing the air through an axial flow device, flowing the air through a supply flow path where at least a portion of the supply flow path is at least partially surrounded by the return flow path and fluidicly connected to the axial flow device. The objects under this goal could be similar to the above objects as would be naturally included or implied from the use of the above elements and would include as well objects from other goals classified below. Furthermore, the use of the remote access and replacement filter changing element might include the steps of moving the filter along a filter path through a centralized location, removing the filter, replacing the filter with a second filter, and moving the second filter to a filtering location.
Another goal of the present invention is to include an air handling system including a return flow path for air to return to an air handling system, a reversing element fluidicly connected to the return flow path, an axial flow device fluidicly connected to the reversing element, and a supply flow path where some portion of the return flow path is surrounded by the supply flow path and fluidicly connected to the axial flow device. Other objects as described herein could apply to this goal as well.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide an air handling system including a return flow path for air to return to an air handling system, a reversing element fluidicly connected to the return flow path, an axial flow device fluidicly connected to the reversing element and the return flow path, and a supply flow path where some portion of the supply flow path is substantially parallel with the return flow path and fluidicly connected to the axial flow device where one of the flow paths is surrounded by the other flow path. For instance, the return flow path could be surrounded by the supply flow path and vice versa. Additionally, the flow path could be substantially enclosed by the other flow path. Other objects described herein would apply to this goal as well. Furthermore, this and the other goals could include a ducting element fluidicly connected to at least one of the flow paths to assist in the flow of the air.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide a method of handling air in an air handling system including the steps of returning air through a return flow path to an air handling system, reversing flow of the air into a supply flow path, flowing the air through an axial flow device, flowing the air through a supply flow path where at least a portion of the supply flow path is aligned substantially parallel to the return flow path and fluidicly connected to the axial flow device, and surrounding some portion of one of the flow paths with the other flow path. Naturally, similar objects as described above could apply to this goal as well.
Another goal of the present invention is to provide a method of handling air in an air handling system including the steps of providing a return flow path for a flow of air to an air handling system, utilizing a reversing element affirmatively to reverse the flow direction of air into a supply flow path, providing an axial flow device in the supply flow path, aligning at least a portion of a supply flow path substantially parallel to the return flow path, fluidicly connecting the supply flow path to the axial flow device, and at least partially surrounding one of the flow paths with the other flow path. An object of this goal is to arrange the supply flow path between symmetrical returns. Another object is to arrange the supply flow path between multiaxial returns. Another object is to at least partially surround the supply flow path with the return flow path. Likewise, another object is to at least partially surround the return A flow path with the supply flow path. Another object is to substantially enclose a supply flow path with the return flow path. Another object is to substantially enclose the return flow path with the supply flow path. Another object is uniformly providing the flow of air to the axial flow device. Another object is to coaxially arrange the supply flow path with the return flow path. Another object is to fluidicly connect one filter to the axial flow device, which may be inclined, may be a converging filter, a trapezoidal filter, a skewed flow face filter, or combinations thereof as discussed herein. Another object is to fluidicly surround the axial flow device with a filter to assist in establishing uniform air flow to the axial flow device. Similarly, another object is to fluidicly surround the axial flow device with a coil to also assist in establishing uniform air flow to the axial flow device. Other objects similar to those described herein in the other goals could apply and could include the steps of locating, utilizing, arranging, adjusting, and orienting, as set forth in the claims and other areas or the patent.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide an air handling system including a return flow path to return the air to an air handling system, a plurality of converging filters to filter the air where the converging filters include a filter element media having a polysided, three dimensional configuration with at least three sides where the sides include at least two sides converging toward an intersection and at least one other side separating the two sides, a fan fluidicly connected to the return flow path, and a supply flow path to flow air out of the air handling system. One object of this goal could include providing a converging filter in the shape of a trapezoidal filter. Another object could include providing a trapezoidal filter to surround an annulus formed by the relative position of the return flow path and supply flow path. Another object of this goal is to orient the filters to substantially fluidicly surround the fan to assist in establishing a substantially uniform air flow to the fan. Another object is to incline the filters at an angle to the primary flow direction of at least one of the flow paths to assist in changing flow directions. Other objects of the present invention discussed herein apply to this goal as well.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide an air ventilation converging filter including filter element media, and a polysided, three dimensional configuration of the media having at least three sides where the sides include at least two sides converging toward an intersection and at least one other side separating the two sides and where the media and the polysided, three dimensional configuration combined to form a converging filter. An object of this goal is to provide a polysided, three dimensional frame, to hold the filter element media, and a restraining element where the frame, restraining element, and filter element media combine to form a framed, converging filter. One object of this goal is to adapt the converging filter to fit a cooperating frame in the air handling system where the cooperating frame is adapted to seal around the converging filter to minimize, for instance, air leaks. Another goal of the present invention is to provide a converging filter adapted to fit an annulus of the air handling system. Other objects described herein apply to this goal as well.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide an air ventilation skewed flow face filter including filter element media, and a poly-sided, three dimensional configuration with at least a first and second flow face where the first flow face is skewed at an angle to the second flow face, where the media and polysided, three dimensional configuration combined to form a skewed flow face filter. Other objects of this goal include those objects previously mentioned.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide a varying flow resistance element selected from a group consisting essentially of flow resistance elements affecting filtration purity and temperature. Such resistance may be varied for instance, by a change in thickness at certain sections in the flow stream or by resistance per cross sectional area or a combination.
Still a further goal of the present invention is to provide a pressure differential turning system for an air handling system, including a return flow path to return air to an air handling system at least one conditioning element having at least a first and second flow surface where at least one of the flow surfaces is oriented at an angle to a direction of primary flow of the return flow path to aid in turning the flow and where the conditioning element is selected from the group consisting essentially of conditioning elements affecting filtration purity and temperature, a fan to flow the air through the air handling system, and a supply flow path to supply the air handling system. One object of this goal is to provide a conditioning element including a filter where the filter surfaces may be oriented at an angle to aid in turning the flow at an intended turn in the flow. Such angle may be acute, obtuse, perpendicular, or other angle. Another object of this goal is to provide a conditioning element including a coil oriented at an angle for similar purposes. Another object is to provide a frustoconical coil. Another object is to provide a coil oriented perpendicular to the primary flow direction of the return flow path and supply flow path when, for instance, at least a portion of the return and supply flow paths are parallel. Another object is to provide a substantially uniform air flow. Other objects described herein apply here as well.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an air handling system including a return flow path to return air to the air handling system, a fan located in fluidic proximity to the return flow path, a supply flow path to supply air from the fan and fluidicly connected to the fan, and at least one non-ducted boundary layer opening in proximity to the supply flow path and fluidicly connected to the return flow path. One object is to provide the non-ducted boundary layer opening at a given axial location in the supply flow path. Another object is to locate the boundary layer openings between the return flow path and supply flow path and spaced around the perimeter of at least one of the flow paths. Another object is to provide openings which are adjustable, and may be automatically or remotely or any combination thereof. Another object is to locate the non-ducted boundary layer openings between the return and supply flow paths at an interface. A further object is to adjust the boundary layer opening which may affect the flow of the boundary layer. Another object is to automatically or remotely or any combination thereof adjust the boundary layer opening. A further object is to establish a boundary layer adjacent to an outer periphery of at least one of the flow paths, which may be the supply flow path. Other objects described herein apply to this goal as well.
Another goal to the present invention is to provide a remote filter changing system including a return flow path to return air to an air handling system, a plurality of filters to filter the air, a fan to flow the air through the air handling system, a supply flow path to filter the air from the air handling system, at least one centralized location to remotely access and replace the plurality of filters, and a remote access and replacement filter changing element to change a plurality of filters from the centralized location. One object is to further provide an advancing filter path element to move the filter to the centralized location which may include indexing the movement. Another object is to provide filters that are converging filters, which may be adapted to fit in an annulus formed by the relative position of the return and supply flow paths. Another goal is to provide a remote access and replacement filter changing element that may include a revolving lazy Susan arrangement. Another object is to provide a remote access and replacement filter changing element that includes a closed loop system. Other objects of other goals described herein apply here as well.
The above goals and objects can equally apply to a clean room environment and so a further goal of the present invention could be to apply any and all of the herein described goals and objects to the particular needs of a filtered clean room. For instance, one goal includes a filter and clean room including an enclosed space suitable for a clean room environment (such as controlled compositions), an air handling system fluidicly connected to the enclosed space, a return flow path for air to return to the air handling system, a reversing element fluidicly connected to the return flow path, an axial flow device fluidicly connected to the reversing element, a supply flow path where some portion of the supply flow path is substantially parallel to the return flow path and fluidicly connected to the axial flow device where one of the flow paths is at least partially surrounded by the other flow path, and a filter to filter that contaminates from the air fluidicly connected to the air handling system. Objects described herein such as the relative location of the supply flow path and return flow path, different filter arrangements, different coil arrangements, and so forth, would apply to the clean room as well.
Another goal of the present invention using a clean room relates to undivided zones. Thus, a goal is to provide a clean room undivided zoned air filtering system including a return flow path to return air to the air handling system, an air handling system to flow the air, a supply flow path to flow the air to at least one of a plurality of undivided zones of a clean room, and a filtration system adapted to filter a predetermined first contaminant in the undivided zone of the clean room where the first contaminate is different than a predetermined second contaminant in at least one other of the undivided zones of the clean room. Another object of this goal is to provide a second filtration system to filter a second undivided zone of the clean room that is adapted to selectively filter a predetermined second contaminant independently of the first contaminant. The contaminant may be a chemical contaminant. Another object is to provide an air handling system, the return flow path, and the supply flow path in a zone specific environment. Another object is to fluidicly connect the filtration system to a zoned return flow path so that filtration occurs from the undivided zone before air mingles with air from other zones. Another object is to fluidicly connect the filtration systems to a zoned supply flow path so that filtration occurs before air mingles with air from other zones. A further object may be to provide at least one cross-migration reduction element to reduce cross-migration of air from one undivided zone to another undivided zone in the clean room. The cross-migration reduction element may include a pressure balancing element. Another object is to provide a sufficient volume of air from the supply flow path to the undivided zone to assist in reduction of cross-migration of air from one undivided zone to another undivided zone. Other objects similar to those described herein may apply to this goal as well.
A further goal of the present invention is to include a zoned clean room air filtering system for chemical contaminants which may include an air handling system to flow air, and a return flow path to return the air to the air handling system, a supply flow path to flow the air to at least one of a plurality of zones of a clean room, and a chemical filtration system adapted to filter a predetermined first chemical contaminant in the zone of the clean room that is different than a predetermined second contaminant in at least one other of the zones. A primary object of this goal is to selectively chemically filter chemical contaminants specific to a zone, as opposed to the more general particulate contaminants. Another object is to provide a second filtration system to filter a second zone of the clean room that is adapted to selectively filter a predetermined second contaminant independently of the first contaminant. Another object is to localize the first contaminant to at least one divided zone. Another object is to include the air handling system, the return flow path and the supply flow path in a specific zone. Another goal is to fluidicly connect the filtration system through a zoned return flow path to filter the air from a zone before the air mingles with air from other zones. Another object is to fluidicly connect the filtration system to a zoned supply flow path to filter the air before the air mingles with air from other zones. Other objects of other goals described herein apply to these goals as well.
In supplying such a system, as shown in the preferred embodiment described above, it could generally include at least some of the following elements. First, it could include providing a return flow path and utilizing a reversing element to affirmatively reverse the flow direction of air into a supply flow path. It could also include providing an axial flow device in the supply flow path which could include an axial fan. As part of the system, the blade pitch or rotational speed of the axial flow device could be adjustable. It could include aligning at least a portion of a supply flow path substantially parallel to the return flow path, fluidicly connecting the supply flow path to the axial flow device and at least partially surrounding one of the flow paths with the other flow path. Such an arrangement could include arranging a supply flow path between symmetrical returns. It could also include arranging the supply flow path between multiaxial returns. Furthermore, it could include arranging the supply flow path and a return flow path to provide an annulus between the supply flow path and the return flow path. It could also include substantially enclosing one of the flow paths with the other flow path at a cross sectional section. It could also include coaxially arranging the supply flow path with the return flow path. Another feature is that it could include uniformly providing the flow to the axial flow device.
The system could also include locating at least one filter in fluidic connection with at least one of the flow paths. Typically, this could be the return flow path; however, it is not so restricted. Additionally, the filter could be inclined. The filter could be a converging filter which, in and of itself could be inclined. Such a shape could be trapezoidal. The arrangement of the filter could be that it fluidicly surrounds the fan such that flow from the filter may be more uniformly provided to the axial flow device. It could also include a coil. The coil could be a variety of shapes including circular or frustoconical. The coil could be arranged perpendicular to a primary flow direction of the return flow path. In the preferred embodiment, this may also include being perpendicular to the supply flow path. Alternatively, the coil could be inclined to a primary flow direction such as might be expected in a frustoconical coil arrangement.
The system might also include providing a boundary layer affecting element which could include a flow splitter, either singly or as a plurality of splitters, or providing a boundary layer opening or a combination thereof. A further feature of the system would include adjusting the boundary layer opening to adjust the boundary layer location about a perimeter of one of the flow paths. Such an adjustment could be provided as a remote adjustment or an automatic adjustment or some combination thereof.
Additionally, the system typically might include providing a plurality of filters around an annulus formed by the relative position of the supply flow path to the return flow path. Such an arrangement might also include a remote access and replacement filter changing element to change a plurality of filters from a centralized location. Such a design might include the ability to move the filter along a filter path to the centralized location, the ability to remove the filter, the ability to replace a filter with a second filter, and then the ability to move the second filter to a filtering location.
Another aspect of the system might include providing at least one conditioning element where the primary flow surface of the conditioning element is oriented at some angle, whether acute, perpendicular, obtuse, or another angle, to a direction of primary flow of one of the flow paths (typically the return flow path) to aid in turning the flow where the conditioning element is selected from a group consisting essentially of conditioning elements affecting filtration purity and temperature. Typically, such conditioning elements would include coils and filters and exclude deflectors, baffles, piping ells and tees. Such a system could also include orienting at least one filter at an angle to a primary flow direction of one of the flow paths, again typically the return flow path, to aid in turning the flow at an intended turn in the flow. Such a intended flow could take place at the reversing element shown at FIG. 1 as element (18) or even a turning element (53) shown in FIG. 27. The system could also include orienting at least one coil at some angle to the primary flow direction of a flow path, typically a return flow path, to aid in turning the flow at an intended turn in the flow. Naturally, such an angle could be any angle including acute, perpendicular, obtuse, and so forth. The system might include providing a frustoconical coil fluidicly connected to the axial flow device, such that the coil provided conditioning as well as provided some turning of the flow.
The system could also include providing additional air to the supply flow path such as makeup air (19) as shown in FIG. 1. Providing the makeup air at a certain position in the reversing element (18), as shown in FIG. 1, might additionally assist in affirmatively turning the flow direction of air toward the supply flow path (20).
The system might also include providing a skewed flow face filter and could include locating the filter in the proximity of a tuning element. Such a skewed flow face filter could include providing a first and second flow face where a first flow face might be at an angle to the second flow face, such angle including acute, perpendicular, or obtuse, zero, or other angles. The system could also include orienting the first flow face of skewed flow face filters substantially perpendicular to the flow path, typically, a return flow path. It could also include orienting the second flow face to a turned direction of air in the flow path. The system could also include orienting the first flow face at an angle to the flow path. The system could include providing a turning element in the air handling system and orienting a second flow face of the skewed flow face filter toward the turned direction of the turning element. The skewed flow face filter could also include providing substantially similar square areas of the first and second flow faces. The system could also include providing a skewed flow face filter in combination with a converging filter design, an inclined arrangement, or a combination thereof.
Naturally, other objects and goals of the present invention may be revealed in specification claims and drawings.